The Best Concerts in Dallas This Week, 3/16-3/22

This week a small niche festival that you've most likely never heard of before is taking place in Austin. It's called South By South West. There's also a ton of great stuff taking place at home here in Dallas. Guitar god Carlos Santana and the Beach Boys (separately) stop by Verizon Theatre. DJ Premier and Royce Da 5' 9 performs at Trees, rising star Raury hits Club Dada and TV on the Radio play two sold-out gigs at Granada Theater. Here's all the great stuff going down this week.

Kevin Devine is a prominent member of the indie folk rock scene. The New York born and bred artist got his start in the early aughts around Brooklyn. In 2002 he released his debut album, Circle Gets the Square, which only had 750 pressings upon its original release. What followed was 2003's, Make the Clocks Move, a record that weighs heavily on the themes of politics and thoughtful takes on growing up, which was the rolling thunder for his career. Since then he's released six albums, a slew of EPs and has kept busy with a ton of side projects. He's basically indie rock's best keep secret that really isn't a secret.

DJ Premier is one of the greatest producers of all time and he was born and raised in Houston. It's easy to forget this because after college he high-tailed it out to New York and became an integral part in developing the New York sound of his era. Royce Da 5'9, meanwhile, is one of hip hop's most underrated lyricists. Together they form Prhyme, a gritty hip-hop duo, who released an album at the tail end of last year. This is an occasion for lovers of hip hop with an extra attention to the lyrics with a gritty feel - a show, in other words, for proud "backpackers."

Santana is probably the most successful Mexican immigrant in the history of American music, and while that means a lot to someone like me it doesn't excuse his crimes against humanity. You see, way back in the year 1999 Carlos Santana sat down with Matchbox Twenty lead singer Rob Thomas, they joked around, had a few beers, jammed out on the guitar, and then opened up a gate to hell. The demon that escaped would go on to capture radio's top spot for 12 straight weeks, and then win every single Grammy award for 13 straight years. (Source: The Onion.) The hell spawn named "Smooth" still shows its hideous face today on the airwaves of lite FM stations worldwide, and occasionally hijacks the airwaves of 91.7 KXT to remind us that it's a hot one, like seven inches from the midday sun. Oh god, I know the lyrics; someone help me, please. I know my case is severe, I don't have much time to live. Whatever you do, avoid the Verizon Theatre, or else you might also catch this malady.

While Dallas will see an appearance of Brian Wilson and fellow original Beach Boys members Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin later this June, a Mike Love and Bruce Johnston-led Beach Boys will host an evening of some of the most commercially successful rock music of all time at Verizon Theater. This incarnation has been performing together for more than a decade, riding the current of success made possible by some of the most avant-garde pop of their time, despite a few legal battles and name changes. With or without recording innovator and visionary Wilson, any representation of America's most beloved pop group still holding sway is a testament that the adolescent ideals of '60s regional Southern California transcend to something more than just songs about an epicurean lifestyle of surfing , hot rods and girls.

The Detroit raised Black Milk has been in Dallas for a few years, so we think it's alright to go ahead and claim him. Last year he released one of the year's most innocuously great rap records, in a sense that it was overlooked. It appears as though the indie "rapper's rap" crown went to Run The Jewels. But, don't fret,

If There's a Hell Below

is a moody and dark affair with sharp rhymes and compelling beats, of which Black Milk pulls double duties at constructing.

HDB

TV on the Radio With Nostalgia, 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, March 19 and 20, Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave., 214-824-9933 or granadatheater.com, Sold out

We used to compare these guys to Radiohead. They were the future of indie rock 10 years ago, our best chance to replace the vanilla streams of alienation trailing in Thom Yorke's wake with an equally experimental venture that made room for soul, a creatively vital act you could still dance to. The irony is that TV on the Radio knew better than we did, moving with and ahead of the tide toward pop intelligibility with every release, and sometimes I think we haven't forgiven them for it. That's the only way I can understand the collective shrug Seeds received from the alternative press last year, in an age when Taylor Swift has bridged the alt and pop worlds, because it's one of their best records front-to-back; hell if it ain't soulful and danceable, too. Experimental, not so much, but that voice was always meant to sing anthems, and those rhythms were bound to settle down sometime. We don't compare TVTOR to Radiohead anymore, and we shouldn't, because they're still in peak form. We don't call them the future anymore either, because they're the present, and they have been for years.

Brian Peterson

Hozier With Goerge Ezra, 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 20, at House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar, houseofblues.com/dallas or 214-978-2583, $35-$40

Hozier (I always thought "hozier" was what you called a ho who was also a poseur. Apparently, it's also this dude's last name) is coming to the House of Blues, and we all know what the people want to hear. Hopefully, he'll just play his current mega-popular single, "Take Me To Church," 5,000 times in a row in order to recreate what it currently feels like to listen to the radio. Maybe they have Matthew McConaughey run on the stage and interrupt every so often to read some McConaughey™-drawly Reliant Energy ads followed immediately by one of those damned Central Market ads about reeeeeally loving purple potatoes. "Take Me To Church" is played on no fewer than three local radio stations (it was a hit on Christian radio until they were told of the song's "hidden doin' it message"). It's taking over the radio so hard, I would not be surprised to hear it soon (somehow) become a No. 1 hit on BOOM 94.5, the classic hip-hop station. George Ezra is the opening act, and if we're all super lucky, he'll play a 30-minute cover of "Take Me To Church" to hype the crowd.

Flux Pavillion gets all the kids pumped. Born Joshua Kierkegaard G. Steele (yes, that's a real name), the English DJ is a fixture in the expansive dubstep scene. Although he's skilled with a variety of instruments, he chose to go the electronic route. It's not for nothing, either. Flux Pavillion has had the pleasure of collaborating with dubstep luminaries like Rusko, Datsik and Excision. He's also had one of his songs, "I Can't Stop," sampled on a song by Kanye West and Jay Z. Undoubtedly, Flux Pavilion is one of the most beloved knob twiddlers on the planet.

Raury is often mistakenly billed under hip-hop. We won't get into why, but just believe us when we say don't be duped by the inaccurate prognosis. Raury draws inspiration and ethos from hip hop in his music, but he's more of a modern-day Beck than anything. The teenager from Atlanta, who has caught Kanye West's eye fuses funk, soul, folk,and the like with hip-hop to create a genre that's most accurately meta-tagged as "smorgasbord." Check the baby faced titan out, and respect real artistry.

Spillover is that older, seemingly wiser friend from high school that was way cooler than you, but sometimes told you which bands to listen to. Boasting a cohesive bill with a heaping spoonful of garage rock, a pinch of noise and a dash of stoner metal, it's sure to please the wide spectrum of Deep Ellum devotees. Big players include Liars (the band that played the song from 50/50 that made you cry), King Tuff, Jeff the Brotherhood, the Coathangers, Diarrhea Planet and plenty of killer acts in between. This year's most notable expansion is the increased sprawl of venues, adding Trees and Off the Record to the two Club Dada stages and Three Links. The additions fall right under the purview of what Spillover is trying to do, and for the last few years they've been batting at 1.000 when it comes to booking. So if you like live music, vinyl, drinking or all of the above, you'll be covered. If you don't, God knows why you're reading this rag in the first place.